A Vicar: The epitome of what the Spellkeepers of Rowena's world were capable of. A position gained by learning and internalizing all the ways of utilizing Mana known to mankind. The only ones authorized to pass this knowledge on to Acolytes, the budding priests.

The Bishop of the Great Temple of Avarinth was such a teacher. But no matter what the Bishop personally thought of Lucan as his new student, there was no reason for him to openly disrespect an Imperial Prince like that.

The mere fact that the prince had previously dabbled in pagan practices to learn Mana would not have made them so. When they had arrived, Sir Yaakov had also been with them, and Rowena could not find the same level of contempt for him in their eyes. Even though it would have been obvious to them that he must have had pagan teachings at some point in his life, given that he was from the Southern Continent.

She had understood that the relationship between Lodden and the Church had taken a bad turn when the current Imperial Family took over the Lodden Empire, but that had been more than a century ago.

'Was that just because the Church had a friendly relationship with the former Imperial Family?'

Rowena couldn't figure it out, so she stopped thinking about it for now. "Were you able to find out about the state of the herbal brew?"

As if he had already forgotten why he had come up at all, his eyes found the unique pearly ones of the young lady he would soon be initiating into society.

"Right," he said, "where are my manners? I have instructed them to take it to your entourage as soon as they are finished. Will that be all right with your ladyship?"

"That depends on how long it takes them to finish." Rowena wasn't planning on staying for another hour or two.

"They might need a few more minutes, half an hour at the most."

"In that case, I will wait." She looked over at Lucan, who seemed rather on edge. "You needn't wait here, Lord Bishop. With a member of the Temple staying with me, I'm sure I won't be bored."

"If you say so," he immediately accepted her offer, not bothering to confirm it, inwardly glad that he didn't have to deal with this mundane matter any longer, "if you need anything, you know where to find me, I presume?"

"I will find you then. Thank you for your time."

With a nod and a barely audible "hmph," the Vicar walked back into the temple, leaving the two young adults alone in the courtyard, which was rarely visited by outsiders, especially at this time of day.

As soon as he was out of sight, Rowena turned her head to Lucan, who was wearing a complicated expression.

"I guess I have up to thirty minutes now, so..."

At her words, Lucan snapped out of his thoughts and gave the young woman next to him a warm smile. "Why not talk a little?"

"I happen to have something I want to ask."

"I will answer if I can." He took it like a game, but he had the feeling he already knew what she was going to ask.

"What is it between your family and the Church of Aurora?" she finally wanted to know after all this time.

Not that she had no clues, she had plenty, but they were all inconclusive as to why the situation had boiled over the way it had. Much like the situation with the original Rowena and her problems that seemed to come from nothing compared to how much they had affected her.

That might have been another thing she had to figure out for herself, thinking about the two women she could not easily label either.

Just like the young man she was talking to. As Arnaldo had said, they could be mistaken for friends, but they weren't. What exactly were they? Rowena couldn't say.

But as long as he answered her, she didn't care too much. She didn't have "friends", apart from Pan, who wasn't really a friend in the original sense of the word.

She only ever had one friend in her life - her former life, to be exact. Back then, she even vowed never to make another friend.

The whole time Rowena let her mind wander, Lucan carefully considered how to answer her question. He had expected it, but hadn't had the time to prepare for it.

"In your position, you must be privy to information regarding what happened when Lodden's Imperial Family fell to a coup."

"I'm aware of the superficial information, yes." In fact, she didn't even know what the standard of knowledge was regarding this incident. She knew that they had replaced the Imperial Family, but that was the extent of it.

"About two hundred years ago, on the North-Western Continent, the Aurora Empire, the newly born Arlen Empire and the Lodden Empire had held hands. Arlen hadn't established itself that firmly yet, because it was still a fledgling that had just hatched."

'So it was the Bermuda Triangle of power pushers, and anyone caught between them, like Edengard or Zenica, would be really, really fucked, like a shrimp caught between whales.' It didn't sound very pleasant to her when it came to the political climate they were so afraid of today.

"Even I don't know all about it, probably not much more than you do, really," he said, "just that Aurora, whoever she was, originally came from the Holy Empire, married into the Lodden Empire at some point, and when her status changed, it bound the two Empires together."

'Her status changed? He means when Uriel ascended and offered her a contract?' It meant that marriage must have happened five hundred years ago, before the Saintess and the Church became what they were now.

But that was not the only thing that struck her as she listened. "I thought the general belief was that the Numbered was called Aurora, not the one in contract with her."

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Nobody had said it out loud, but Rowena had simply assumed it was that way, because in the story, Aurora had descended and given them hope by showing them strength. All of that was done by Uriel, the Numbered.

"History ended up being distorted, It has been five hundred years after all. But as far as I know, the name of the Saintess was Aurora."

"I see. So 'Aurora' was part of Lodden?"

"She was part of the former Imperial Family, yes."

Now it all began to paint a picture in Rowena's mind. "So she was part of the Holy Empire as well as part of the Lodden Empire. That's why they're so angry with your family? Because they lost part of their family."

"Not just because of the family ties," he said, "but because of a gift given by the original Saintess' contracted Numbered only to her and her direct descendants. It was called 'Aurora's Tears,' but no one knows what it was."

"I've heard about that as well. How come no one knows what kind of gift it was?"

They slowly walked past more flower beds as they crossed the courtyard to reach the front yard.

"Back then, the knowledge that originally came from the Saintess started to vanish, bit by bit, centuries after she had lived out her lifespan. There was no one who could control the Church or Lodden in what they were doing, and Vigor the Arlen, Arlen's first Emperor, contributed to that."

This was a bit surprising. "Did it have something to do with his contracts?"

"Indeed," he said, "I suppose you would have learned that much, given your family and position. The First Emperor had what no other had: a power that could hold you to your word."

'They really did go around burning books and locking their knowledge in a vault, didn't they?' Rowena shook her head in disbelief. 'I kind of knew it, but now it all makes more and more sense. But the more sense it makes, the less I like it.'

"The revolt sought to stop the way things had begun to move, but it started in the wrong place," he explained, "the Church had monopolized the knowledge of Mana from the beginning, the Lodden Imperial Family simply kept the public's focus by reminding them of their connection to the Goddess."

"With whatever 'Aurora's Tears' were?"

He looked around as they entered a passage with a particularly loud echo, and whispered: "Exactly. But even then, the Church had already lost a lot of trust as people begged for help that the Church could not provide."

"You mean they didn't have enough men to help everyone, but wouldn't allow people to help themselves?"

"Yes," Lucan confirmed, "after that everything is rather unclear. Historical records, even within Lodden, are spotty at best after the death of the former Imperial Family. By all accounts, they may have been merely exiled. No grave was made for them, only a monument inside the inner palace, to be seen only by members of the Imperial Family."

"I wonder if I should even know about this."

"I don't think it matters much if you do," he stated without missing a beat.

Rowena smiled sheepishly and stopped walking before they came to the knights patrolling outside, up and down the carriage track that connected the Temple with the rest of the capital beyond their high fences.

"Am I in such an unimportant position?" She pretended to be hurt, but wasn't really.

"No, but if everything goes according to my father's wishes, you will soon be part of the Imperial Family anyway."

That shut her up for a moment, at least until she realized that he was just making light of her.

"Well, in any case, I thank you for your answer," the noble said, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear while her face turned slightly red with embarassment, "I imagine the Church did not take kindly to their pride being besmirched in this manner. If it was as you say, the former Imperial Blood must have been like a symbol of status to them."

"They were.

And yes, they were also family. They had more than one reason to despise us. All we can do now is to do what is best for the Lodden Empire, to make it prosper."

"Is that why they call you a tyrant?" Rowena said before she thought it through. 'And we just had a pretty amicable relationship ourselves there. Damn.'

Contrary to what she thought for a moment, Lucan's green eyes lit up with amusement. "Is that what they say about us in Arlen?"

"I'd say it's more of a rumor." And quite a resilient one at that.

"That depends on how you define a 'tyrant,' my lady. As far as I know, all I have done so far is weed out the Imperial Court."

"You? Not the Emperor?"

He laughed outright at her words. It wasn't a bitter laugh, yet a weird kind of laugh, as if she had told a particularly cute joke.

"My Imperial Father is many things, but he is not a tyrant. I will only say this once out of respect, but he is nice to the point of being naive. My dear mother was more of a tyrant than he could ever be."

"He didn't strike me as a simpleton."

"I never said he was." His expression became very serious at those words. "But there is a lot of guilt he inherited along with that throne. A bloody crown that someone needed to carry. That is all."

"But you think differently?" She was genuinely interested in this man she barely knew.

There was a kind of intrigue she rarely felt for another person. Like making friends, she didn't like getting to know people. When did her attitude change? With Norina? Or with Alan?

She couldn't say. She didn't even feel that she had changed at all. That fact fascinated her as much as it scared her.

"Not at all," he claimed and shrugged slightly, "I feel guilty myself. I'm only in this position because of what my ancestors did. As though I took something that shouldn't be mine."

Surprised at his honesty, Rowena tilted her head in true contemplation of her next words, knowing full well how they might be received. Then again, their entire conversation could be considered treasonous anyway, so who was keeping track?

"Does that mean you would give up everything if the true heir to the throne returned?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I mean, if the true bloodline of Lodden somehow came back from the past, would you just roll over and let them have it?"

It did catch the Imperial Prince off guard, but for reasons different from what she would have expected. "'Roll over and let them have it,' my lady?"

She stopped herself from rolling her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "You should be aware of what I was trying to say."

He laughed, wondering where this noble lady had been raised to grow up like that. But he'd heard her say even cruder things, so he wasn't really offended or confused, he instead tried to avoid answering.

However, he couldn't do that forever. "I would not, of course."

"So everything you said was window dressing then; just pretty words?"

"I'm not a hypocrite, I'm saying that it's a long time ago and my family hasn't done badly when it comes to ruling the Empire."

"Who says the original Imperial Family did badly?"

"There was a revolt, so it's not hard to assume that there was a lot of hidden malice among the people. Who knows? Maybe it's still there today."

"Which means you don't know if you're actually doing well," she reasoned while smiling, but found his attitude odd, zeroing in on her point, "So what would you do if something like that happened?"

With a sigh, he held eye contact and, for once, didn't fool around even a bit. "Then I would tell him to dethrone me as my family had done to his," he said in a tone that did not falter, "with blood and will, they fought their way into this position, and I will only accept them if they can show me they are worth it."

"What if you don't have the right to decide that?"

"Who would have that right, if not the people of the Empire? If they march up against us like they have done back then, I will accept my defeat. Until then...," Lucan paused to think, then shook his head with another crooked smile, "I am simply too ambitious to give up my position to someone out of mere sentimental obligation. Nevertheless, we took this throne by force, so we must fight for it, even in the darkest of times, because we owe it to the people. To be the very best - or to die giving it our all."

"You do the best you can with what you are given, you mean?" A sentiment she was very familiar with.

"Can we ever do anything else?" was all he said in return, while still keeping eye contact.

Before she could answer one more time, two nuns emerged from the temple, holding something wrapped in a piece of white cloth as they made their way to the carriage bearing the Varnhagen crest.